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About

Grapeshot is a software technology company using advanced Information Retrieval techniques pioneered at Cambridge University.

History

The Grapeshot founders first worked together in 1992, developing
the commercial use of the Muscat software, first developed and
installed on the University of Cambridge's mainframe systems in the 1980s. This probabilistic search system was installed as
internet- and intranet-search solutions for the BBC, Virgin.Net,
Shell, Nokia, NASA, Telegraph, Greenpeace, Sun Microsystems,
and 100 other corporations. After doubling revenues year on year
for five years, the business was sold in 1997 to a public company.

Muscat technology was subsequently used to build one of the first
large search indexes of the internet. In 1999 the Muscat team was
neck-and-neck with Google, with each team indexing half a billion
webpages.

The Grapeshot founders resigned in 2001 and started work on creating
fresh, new code that could surpass the Muscat technology platform and
deliver real-time classification and content recommendations. In 2006
the new code was deployed by Verisign Inc. to index over 100 million
websites, as well as suggest domain names for domain registrars.
Verisign continues to license the core Grapeshot platform today.

In 2007 Grapeshot worked with both Reuters and IBM to create
personalised content experiences using new web-services architecture,
before moving to online advertising in 2008 to recommend relevant
advertorials on niche B2B sites owned by Incisive Media.

In 2009 the company scaled up its new web-service operations to
populate the content recommendations for Virgin Media's Entertainment
assets - TV, Movies and Film - whilst delivering targeted contextual
advertising for publishers using the DoubleClick and Adtech ad server
platforms.

By 2010 Grapeshot had signed up the majority of the UK publisher
market including Mail Online, IPC Media, Johnston Press, Trinity Mirror,
Reuters, and Incisive Media.

In 2011 Grapeshot started to work with buy-side agencies to help
segment inventory according to keywords that define a brand's targeting
needs for display media.

In April 2012 Grapeshot launched the Grapeshot Keywords app which
has quickly become one of the top most-used apps on the AppNexus
RTB platform.

Science

Grapeshot uses advanced probabilistic algorithms to assess the relative significance of keywords in pages and what users read. Dr Porter, Grapeshot founder and chief scientist,
is considered one of the 'founding fathers' of probabilistic search and has worked at the cutting edge of information retrieval and search technology for over 30 years.

Dr Porter is world-famous for his 'Porter Stemmer', now taught in
many Computer Science university degree courses, and used by
every major search engine platform including Microsoft Bing and
Google. Type 'Porter Stemmer' into Google to see his pedigree
and references.

Dr Porter has used small, efficient, scalable algorithms to
power word-extraction, real-time categorization, and advanced
search methods. These are the technological advantages
Grapeshot exploits to make millisecond-fast categorisations in
real time to decide which advertising, e-commerce, and content
recommendations to make on each and every page impression.

The Board

Tim Schoonmaker, Chairman

Tim Schoonmaker manages a portfolio of public company investments
and is an early-stage Grapeshot investor. He was at Emap plc. from
1983 to 2004, where he was CEO of Emap Performance, including the
group's radio and music TV interests, pioneering cross-media brand
creation through digital platforms. Tim was also Chairman of EMAP
Advertising. Thereafter, he was CEO of Odeon Cinemas Ltd, where
he led the business through an exit that was successful for investors,
as well as serving as the media industry partner of mid-market private
equity fund DLJ Merchant Banking Partners. He holds an MBA from the
London Business School and a BA from Dartmouth College.

Max Bautin, Investor Director

Max has worked in venture capital since 2001 and has invested in over two dozen high-technology companies - including Phonetic Arts (Google), ImSense (Apple), Sirigen (BD), DanioLabs (Summit), Quotient (EKF), Reevoo and Transversal. He currently represents IQ Capital on the boards of Grapeshot, Neul, and Stillfront.
Max started his career in Millicom and then Metrosvyaz, both private equity players investing in mobile telecoms companies in Eastern Europe and other developing countries. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the University of Cambridge.

Dr Martin Porter, Chief Scientist

Martin has devoted his working life to the implementation of
information retrieval (IR) systems; in particular, probabilistic
models. He studied at the University of Cambridge, achieving
a distinction in the Diploma in Computer Science and took a
PhD supervised by Karen Spärck Jones. His original stemming
algorithm ('An algorithm for suffix stripping' Program, 14(3)) has
become one of the most frequently cited papers in information
retrieval research. In 2000, he won the Strix Award 'for outstanding
contribution to the field of information retrieval'.

Robert Whitby-Smith

Robert is a partner at ALBION VENTURES LLP, one of the largest independent venture capital investors in the UK. Albion manage approximately £250 million across six Venture Capital Trusts.

After graduating in History at Reading University, Robert qualified as a chartered accountant at KPMG and subsequently worked in corporate finance at Credit Suisse First Boston and ING Barings before joining Albion in 2005 and the Grapeshot board in 2014.

John Snyder, CEO

In 1992 John co-founded Muscat with Dr Martin Porter and led its
profitable commercial growth to a successful trade exit in 1997. From
2001, he led Business Creation at the Cambridge Entrepreneurship
Centre, chaired the 5th Cambridge Enterprise Conference, co-founded
Library House, Cambridge Angels, and Enterprise Accelerator, and
served on the board of the East of England Development Agency for
five years until 2008. John holds an Honours degree from the University
of Cambridge, where he remains 'Entrepreneur in Residence'.

News

Buyers

RTB Optimised

We have a range of products that search for keywords across billions of advertising
opportunities to maximise the efficiency and effectiveness of your campaigns.
Our technology is integrated into many platforms, including:

The Key is in the words

Our software enables you to select the keywords that will identify the content your
advertisement should be placed next to. Target what you want, exclude what you don’t.